Mockup Portfolios:
University of British Columbia Life Sciences Building

In July of 2002 the Lab was approached by Mike Woodbridge of Bunting Coady Architects of Vancouver, BC about doing a Mock-Up for the new Life Sciences building at University of British Columbia (UBC). Working with Diamond & Schmitt Architects, Toronto and MCW Consultants, Vancouver as well as receiving substantial support from BC Hydro the team is pursuing LEED status for the project.

What they wanted to mock-up was a continuous section of laboratory, corridor and office alcove spaces.

In the laboratory portion they were looking at two pendant types (indirect and indirect/ direct) as well as two placement orientations (parallel or perpendicular) to the lab benches. A big concern in many task areas is not only light quantity but light quality. The large indirect component of the light helps achieve a uniform shadowless light as will as good horizontal and vertical illuminance.

In the adjoining corridor, the mock-up incorporated two different wall mounted indirect systems to light for circulation as well as clean up sinks at each lab bench opening. By washing the surfaces with light the goal was to give a high degree of perceived brightness while maintaining a low power density.

The office alcoves (that are across the corridor from the labs) were included mainly to check the daylight penetration. They wanted to determine if the daylight from the labs (which will be on the perimeter) would make it through the corridor and provide an adequate quantity to the alcoves. Even though they did extensive daylight model studies with the Seattle BetterBricks Daylight Lab, they wanted to include some daylight analysis in the full-scale mock-up. The Mock-Up room has a full south window wall and the build out for the mock-up simulated the window pattern of the UBC lab.

This Mock-Up was accomplished in two stages, after the initial viewing of a variety of products and strategies for their lab spaces the design team decided on a fixture style and placement that they liked and arranged to come back a week later. This allowed them to finalize their ideas and focus on fine tuning the scheme.

Above: Exterior view of one of the models of the UBC Life Sciences Building used for daylighting analysis by the BetterBricks Daylighting Lab. You may download a PDF report on the daylighting analysis here. (Note that this is a very large file.)

Above: The design team discusses the performance of the electric lighting design in the Lighting Design Lab Mockup Room

Photos Lighting Design Lab